Barnard says African Americans should not have Muslim Names

Notorious ignoramus, Tom Barnyard, has declared African Americans
should not keep Muslim Names.

First of all, who cares what you think fat ass?

This is his logic: Arabs traded Africans
as slaves. Never mind that 54,000 trips were taken by Europeans to
transport slaves to the western hemisphere. A multitude of forts were
built on the African "Gold" Coast. Countless lived and died like cattle
on the ships. They were traded by many peoples including Europeans,
Arabs, Jews and Africans themselves. However none were at an organized,
government, national level of economic, political policy like England
and the United States etc. But this is history, let's talk about this
Tom's logic regarding Arabic names...

Many of the regions these kidnappings of Africans took place were
countries with substantial Islamic populations such as Nigeria, Senegal
and others on the western coast of Africa. With their culture, language
and history annihilated, why can't the African Americans keep Muslim
names? After all, Many are most likely descendants of African continent
Muslims!

What is truly idiotic about Barnyard's logic is why should they keep
given slave names instead?

It's 2005 Tom. African Americans can drink out of the same water
fountain, be your supervisor, your governor, your senator and they can
certainly choose their own names regardless of what you want.

More info:

Songhai: Africa's Largest Empire

With the decline of Mali, the kingdom of Gao reasserted itself as the
major kingdom in the Sahel. The people of Songhai were farmers and
fisherman who lived along the Niger River of West Africa. After
centuries of trade with merchants from across the desert, they were
converted to Islam around the 1200s.

A Songhai kingdom in the region of Gao had existed since the eleventh
century AD, but it had come under the control of Mali in 1325. In the
late fourteenth century, Gao reasserted itself with the Sunni dynasty.
Songhai would not fully eclipse Mali until the reign of the Sunni king,
Sonni Ali, who reigned from 1464-1492.

Sonni Ali aggressively turned the kingdom of Gao into the Songhai
empire. Ali based his military on a cavalry and a highly mobile fleet
of ships. With this military, he conquered the cities of Timbuctu and
Djenne, the major cities of the Mali.
Great Mosque of Djenne
Great Mosque of Djenne

The Berbers, who had always played such a crucial role in the downfall
of Sahelian kingdoms, were driven from the region.

Roughly around the same year Christopher Columbus reached the western
hemisphere, Askia Muhammad Toure (1493-1528), established the Askia
dynasty of Songhai. Muhammad Toure continued Sonni Ali's imperial
expansion by seizing the important Saharan oases and conquering Mali
itself. From there he went on to conquer the land of the Hausas.

The vastness of Askia Mohammed's kingdom covered most of West Africa,
larger than all of the European states of the era combined. With
literally several thousand cultures under its control, Songhai ranked
as one of the largest empires of the time.

In order to maintain his large empire Muhammad Toure further
centralized the government by creating a large and elaborate
bureaucracy. He was also the first to standardize weights, measures,
and currency, causing culture throughout Songhai to homogenize.
Muhammad Toure, a fervent Muslim, he replaced traditional Songhai
administrators with Muslims in order to "Islamicize" Songhai society.
Gold Merchant Drawings
Rendering of West African Gold Merchants Using Weights and
Measurements:

He also appointed qadis, Muslim judges, to run the legal system under
Islamic legal principles. These programs of conquest, centralization,
and standardization were the most ambitious and far-reaching in Africa
at the time. However, while urban centers were dominated by Islam
non-urban areas retained traditional African spiritual systems. The
vast majority of the Songhai people of the time, around 97%, retained
traditional African spiritual practices - even when accepting Islam.
Thus within West African Islam itself, the many cultures that made up
Songhai shaped various African traditional beliefs around it. This
fusion of African spirituality and Islam was reflected in everything
from philosophy to architecture
The Mausoleum of Askia Muhammed, at Gao Mali
The Mausoleum of Askia Muhammed, at Gao Mali

Under the leadership of Askia Mohammed, the city of Timbuctu once again
became a prosperous commercial city, reaching a population of 100,000
people. Merchants and traders traveled from Asia, the Middle East and
Europe to exchange their exotic wares for the gold of Songhai. Timbuctu
gained fame as an intellectual center rivaling many others in the
Muslim world.

Students from various parts of the world had long come to Timbuctu's
famous University of Sankore to study Law and Medicine. Medieval Europe
sent emissaries to the University of Sankore to witness its excellent
libraries with manuscripts and to consult with mathematicians,
astronomers, physicians, and jurists whose intellectual endeavors were
said to be paid for out of the king's own treasury.

Unfortunately for Songhai it was to be its very size that would lead to
its downfall. A vastly spread empire, it encompassed more territory
than could actually be controlled. After the reign of Askia Duad,
subject peoples began to revolt. Even Songhai's massive army, said to
be over 35,000 soldiers, archers and chain-mailed cavalry, could not
keep order. The first major region to declare independence was
Hausaland; then much of the Maghreb (Morocco) rebelled and gained
control over crucial gold mines.

The Moroccans defeated Songhai in 1591 and the empire quickly
collapsed. Their victory was due in part to new forms of European
weaponry acquired from Spain and Portugal. The Songhai rulers were
forced to retreat southward to the Dendi region near the Niger River.
They would retain ruler ship for a time over their own people, but the
powerful military and prosperity of their empire would never recover.

Under the Moroccans the scholars at Timbuctu were arrested for treason
and some even killed or taken back to Morocco. The university of
Sankore destroyed. Ahmed Baba, an African university scholar of the
time, is reputed to have lost over 1,500 books from his personal
collection alone under the Moroccan occupation. By 1612, the remaining
cities of Songhai fell into general disarray, with Morocco unable to
keep the empire intact or same from attack under their rule. Numerous
states broke off to form smaller independent kingdoms or federations.
And one of the greatest empires of African history disappeared from the
world stage. Not since then has any African nation rose to prominence
and wealth as did mighty Songhai.